54 



berg-s, their physical condition, rarity and localization — for 

 they are only found on ridges and high land (including 

 the Downs) — is evidence of their being but the last remains 

 of an old sea bottom.* 



The area of the Weald inside the chalk ring was first 

 an oblong table-land, with the oldest (the Hastings) beds 

 running east and west, perhaps somewhat raised above the 

 rest. This central area was surrounded, if I may say so, 

 by concentric belts of beds of later origin than the central 

 ones, dipping from them on all sides. Over the chalk 

 downs lay the Tertiary beds level with the same marine 

 plane, but perhaps declining to the Northward. 



On the crest of the Downs there may be found in some 

 places relics of the rocks from the Weald, Gault Clay, 

 Chert, Greensand, Sand and Limestone, &c., lying on the 

 chalk, not in the condition of river gravel, but of patches 

 of the old beach. The soft tertiary strata were easily 

 denuded as the sea retired, but portions still remain 

 beneath patches of shingle, such as that on Well Hill, and 

 some of them appear to have suffered from the action of 

 shore ice. 



With the exception, here and there of patches of 

 Eocene beds and some of "doubtful age," left by the 

 retreating sea, a great part of the stretch of chalk now 

 covered by the deposit called Clay-with Flints muse have 

 been left bare, from the top of the Downs down to a 

 level which in our district coincides nearly with the 400 

 feet contour line. 



In West Kent, a number of hills which reach up to or 

 near that line are topped with beds of gravel, some of 

 which gravels it is true differ from others, but which I 

 must treat as being closely related. One of these patches 

 deserves a special remark. It is that on Shooters Hill. 



*Some of these pebbles may have been derived from the pebble bed 

 of the Lower Greensand, but judging from the size and kinds found in 

 the thin layer as it existsin our district, it does not appear likely to have 

 afforded the whole of those found capping the higher hills of the Weald 

 the Greensand, and the Chalk. 



